RP Concluded [SAoY] Catgirls vs. Robots

[Wes]

The idea I have is an easily-accessible ongoing plot where semi-expendable Star Army of Yamatai infantry soldiers are put on a planet fighting against legions of Militant robots controlled by the Independent Worlds League. The plot would take place in various planetary terrains and conditions and would be about maximizing kill-to-death ratios in a war of attrition against the enemy with the goal of destroying their factories and wiping them out. It's not a complex plot with a deep story, more of an action-packed violence-fest.

Because of the large number of soldiers in the operation, players could pop in and out at any time. The plot would be in Open RP and would be set up as a "first duty" station that new SAoY players are put into unless they specifically opt for an existing plot or make their own RP thread.

 

[Fred]

I think one main impediment in making the IDW an opponent is mainly "Would this course of action be smart enough to be done by them". I don't feel this covers it, not to mention 'armies of robots' might go beyond the means they were implied to have.

I'm okay with a brainless pew-pew-fest being introduced, but the premise should be solid. I think it's on slippery ground right now.

Counterproposal: didn't the YSS Nozomi encounter this machine-race planet during its missions? You could have these make a resurgence, aggressively annexing territory and resources in the belief of post Mishhu-war weakness on the part of the major faction (which I still believe should still be a thing).

edit: I remember now. The Ixari.

 

[Doshii Jun]

IWL is supposed to be a terrorist group in the modern sense. You're talking about fielding huge standing armies. The two don't match, as Fred says.

 

[Kai]

Conversely, I think the IWL is smart enough to use cheap mass-produced robot armies on unimportant planets to antagonize Yamatai while keeping their focus away from the actual important stuff the IWL would do.

However, I agree with fred, this seems a little half-assed. Mountains of brainless mooks can be good, but there needs to be a solid, obvious premise for them aside from "I wanna kill a bunch of mooks"

 

[Wes]

@Fred @Doshii Jun : On the IWL page, it states:

Misophist
StratOps Advisor. Commands at least one million nonvolitional units. Due to Prince Hassan’s obsession with results, it is no surprise he would requisition a Strategic Operations Mainframe to take care of long-term strategy and logistics. Placing such an important role under an AI without supervision is an unpopular move, especially for races who don’t utilize AI as extensively as the Freespacers. Naturally, the Prince couldn’t care less since the machine performs strategic calculations more accurately than a few douzen general staff. Aggressive and belligerent in the extreme.

Rather than fight these million+ robots with background fluff wiki updates and news posts, I would like to allow players a chance to have ahand in reducing those numbers.

 

[Fred]

I'm going to ask a question:
Why is IWL a threat you wish to focus on?

People created the IWL, but have actually done nothing to actually make it a dynamic entity. Aside from a few wiki articles, I'll be frank: I actually don't believe they exist. I think it's an idea they made up, and as time grew it felt more infeasible and they just gave up on it. Those wiki articles could be exfoliated from the wiki, and I wouldn't give a damn, because I mostly don't think of them as being very credible. They've mostly no place in the timeline we're in, especially after the DATASS alliance.

And yet you seem so hung up on them, even though they've not been manifested in a long time. And yet, you bring up those quote and try to make them seem like they are significant. Your premise doesn't really excite me; I find it... trivial. There's also my belief, built on my GMing experience, that the best villain for me are typically those I invent. In example: Melisson's made much of an impression than Eve or Kikyo. Melisson's entirely made up, Eve and Kikyo are borrowed. I kind of think it'd likely be the same for you.

The Ixari, like the Phodians and Kodians, are old SARP stuff. The latter ones, you've repurposed in absence of their creators. I kind of think the former could have the same happen, and would be an hell of a more credible antagonist simply because they've been withdrawn and kind of unscrutable - you could easily deliver your plot's premise of a machine-race army going hostile flaring up without the complications behind borrowing elements of the IWL and be facedwith probable "they're too smart to do stuff like that", "nuh huh, that wouldn't do them in, they'd have a more-clever-than-you-are contigency plan", etc etc...

I fully think you're capable of brilliantly GMing such a premise, Wes. But I'm more enthused by it being a vehicle to give a new interpretation of a loose end from one of your past plots, rather than it being a justified effort to eliminate a faction made to OoCly one-up yours. I hardly think the IWL deserves the effort inherent in that kind of attention. The Ixari, by contrast, propose a win-win situation from my perspective - one free of OoC politicking so that you can focus on just making a good Open RP with this.

 

[Wes]

Why is IWL a threat you wish to focus on?

The answer is because they're enemies of Yamatai, and Yamatai goes after its enemies. I want to destroy them. At the same time, Yamatai needs an enemy we can fight in ground combat. Ever since the Mishhu war ended 2 years ago, things have have been awkwardly peaceful. The Star Army its at its best when it's busy destroying something. So maybe the IWL is not the ideal peg to fit into the hole that is our need of enemies, but it's still an opportunity and I want to take it. The alternative is just handwaving our victory, which would be kind of lame.

 

[Fred]

The worry I have with the IWL is exactly because of that. It's an effort significantly driven by your willingness to just find an excuse to take them out of the setting. Using players to do it feels like a politically correct mean of doing it.

It's... too political. Too much potential fuss waiting to happen. Other than that, I agree that the players of Star Army could use something to fight and not look bad while doing it. But this doesn't strike me as it.

Here's another angle for you. Since the DATASS alliance, the IWL lost a lot of momentum since bugging Yamatai meant getting in trouble with Lor and Nepleslia. Nepleslia itself was a haven for Freespacer, and a lot of antagonism in the IWL also had Lorath roots. But the alliance treaty defused a lot of that. So, IWL stood down. They disbanded, scattered, and members kept quiet about it so that they wouldn't run the chance of being caught on any reprisal. Seriously... that works. Lame? Not any less lame than I think the IWL was as an organization in the first place.

Add to that my belief that they are simply unworthy of attention. I'd avoid wasting player time on that. Especially on the messy political baggage that could come from it. I'd rather see them handwaved away rather than used, because them being used will grant them more attention. Blegh. And I'd rather you be focused on your own idea rather than potentially get accused of mishandling something else (because it'll happen, and already happened in the above posts).

In any case, I've given you my opinion, and as I'd like to avoid repeating the same argument, I'll stop there. You know what I'd rather see from you. Please think about it.

 

[CadetNewb]

I have to agree with what others have said so far. Considering recent events, the IWL is most likely still existent, but unable to act and therefore irrelevant. Rather than stretching the willing suspension of disbelief past it's limit, it is likely best to just let it alone until recent events allow it to actually become relevant again. IRL, terrorist groups often are irrelevant until such an opportunity comes around, and the Independent Worlds League is no different. I suggest finding a different enemy that's a lot more suitable to what you're after until such a time comes. Think of them as a tool for which there's no current use - just set it in the toolbox for now, rather than throw it away.

Of course, you're still looking for something to fight.

Though the Mishhu War ended, I don't see why they're suddenly no longer relevant either. This isn't an era of gentlemanly behavior, where the loser neatly concedes defeat with a treaty and everything. If anything, the Mishhu should still be very present to the galactic south still, but as a disorganized mass we don't want to antagonize into reunifying with a military campaign. We honestly should be fending off the occasional raiding group looking to pillage various goods from our outer colonies.

"Catgirls vs. Tentacle Monsters" is a far more catchy title and premise I think.

 

[Fred]

Calling the Mishhu disorganized is a groos understatement. The Mishhu are no longer waging up-in-your-face warfare because with the upset at the Battle of Yamatai, they're unable to do so and win. This doesn't make them broken, or weak. So, they changed their method of combat until things imrpove. This isn't a withdrawal like Melisson started years before. It's more becoming a moving force with the assets left to them, without giving you a target to mass your assets toward.

It's what made them strong in the beginning: being unassailable. Just, they don't have the assets they had back then.

This said: while the Mishhu can be picked up, Wes made it clear he wanted to use other enemies. I don't think he wants to get back to tentacle monsters in scope of this premise. ~_~

 

[CadetNewb]

That's a shame. Though they're far from perfect, they've been around enough that a fair portion of kinks are fixed for them to be more workable. Any attempts to hurry or rush in new antagonists will just produce things that are lackluster and quite likely not to the taste of the playerbase. I feel that it's likely best to stick with them until better alternatives become available, even if we've been with them for too long. It's better than the alternative. As you pointed out earlier though, there are already pre-existing alternatives too, but not all of them are poised to present what we need either.

Pushing any of them up to that point so quickly will have them lacking proper premise and have suspension of disbelief stretched far too thin.

 

[Wes]

Considering recent events, the IWL is most likely still existent, but unable to act and therefore irrelevant. Rather than stretching the willing suspension of disbelief past it's limit, it is likely best to just let it alone until recent events allow it to actually become relevant again. IRL, terrorist groups often are irrelevant until such an opportunity comes around, and the Independent Worlds League is no different. I suggest finding a different enemy that's a lot more suitable to what you're after until such a time comes.

The Star Army wouldn't be worth much if it was only reactive. We have to go after threats before they're ready to bother Yamatai. If we wait for the IWL to relevant, we lose the initiative and it only invites some future tragic event. It's like how we don't wait to fight Ebola in the US, we go to where it's at and fight it there while it's as small as possible. The IWL is a disease that we want to cure before it causes symptoms. Yamatai has already declared this war so there's no turning back now. Victory is the only way out for Yamatai. Blowing up Echelon would be a sufficient victory for me to say the war is "won." Either that or the IWL disbands (or surrenders, which would be great but I'm not sure why they would).

The Mishhu will return, but when they do I'd like them to be in a more traditional form as monsters and not as the organized Yamatai-style military they tried with the NMX. But for the time being, the Mishhu aren't on the stage and 2nd Mishhu war has been over for 2 OOC years.

 

[Kai]

Alternatively, we could make up some kind of monster that's invading, which we've isolated to a single planet but have been unable to totally defeat. The IWL just doesn't make sense to go after, the Mishhu aren't organized enough to do this, and none of the other things we currently have can fill this role either.

SARP's been needing a new antagonist for a while anyway; dig deep into those noggins and come up with something exciting.

 

[Yoshi]

Why not a semi-sentient computer hooked up to an old factory, pumping out hordes of bots (spider bots would be sexy for this.) trying to cover the planet and gather resources, so it can take it's 'children' to the starts and gather resources from the other plants.

 

[Cmd_Jackson]

Why not a semi-sentient computer hooked up to an old factory, pumping out hordes of bots (spider bots would be sexy for this.) trying to cover the planet and gather resources, so it can take it's 'children' to the starts and gather resources from the other plants.

So... instead of "Nekovalkyrja vs Humanoid" robots, you want to make it "Nekovalkyrja vs Spiderbots that want to go to space"?

 

[CadetNewb]

The Star Army wouldn't be worth much if it was only reactive. We have to go after threats before they're ready to bother Yamatai. If we wait for the IWL to relevant, we lose the initiative and it only invites some future tragic event. It's like how we don't wait to fight Ebola in the US, we go to where it's at and fight it there while it's as small as possible. The IWL is a disease that we want to cure before it causes symptoms. Yamatai has already declared this war so there's no turning back now. Victory is the only way out for Yamatai. Blowing up Echelon would be a sufficient victory for me to say the war is "won." Either that or the IWL disbands (or surrenders, which would be great but I'm not sure why they would).

The Mishhu will return, but when they do I'd like them to be in a more traditional form as monsters and not as the organized Yamatai-style military they tried with the NMX. But for the time being, the Mishhu aren't on the stage and 2nd Mishhu war has been over for 2 OOC years.

A military force nipping a problem in the bud is only ideal but not the actual state of things. In real life, that simply doesn't happen often enough as evidenced by recent events, and it should be the very same here. My reasoning is that if we don't have things parallel real life in this regard, things would get boring. As FMs and GMs, we actually want threats to our loved factions, otherwise, there'd be nothing to keep us entertained. Just because we declared war, doesn't mean it's very effective either, especially if Yamatai is still focused on other things. As FMs and GMs, we don't actually want victory, for the very same reasons as I mentioned before. Or at least not anytime soon.

The Mishhu can return now, but they don't have to be NMX, and they don't have to be returning in force either. Savage, desperate and therefore dangerous raiders looking for precious resources to steal are easy to pull off, and it's something I'm currently doing in Sledge Mama as well, and so far, the players seem to like these monstrous Mishhu. Being the Barbarians raiding Rome's Outer Provinces would work fine.

 

[OsakanOne]

I had the mental image of a platoon of Aiesu constructs and milk shot out of my nose laughing. The smollest most useless platoon imaginable.

Tiny clammy Lorath albino NEETs who are complaining about the sun and the fact their uniforms don't fit who keep looking down the barrels of their guns.

That said, if its wargames you want, we could produce a ... Somewhat more capable construct by sampling a more capable person.